Lucky escape for care home group in minibus crash after day out

A group of north-east pensioners and their carers returning from a theme-park trip had a lucky escape yesterday when their minibus left a rural road and crashed into a tree.

The male driver received multiple fractures and was airlifted to hospital.

Four passengers were taken to hospital by ambulance with various injuries, including fractures. Several others were described as “walking wounded”.

The Ford Transit bus was heading back to the Ellerslie care home at Banff following an outing to the Storybook Glen theme park at Maryculter, near Aberdeen, when the 4.40pm accident happened.

The front of the vehicle was wrecked – and the driver and a passenger trapped – when the minibus left the A97 Rhynie-Huntly road on a tree-lined corner at Culdrain, near Gartly.

Police confirmed no other vehicle was involved in the accident, which happened along a series of bends.

The 13 people aboard the vehicle were aged from their 20s to 70s. All were taken to hospital, with a Sea King rescue helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth called to airlift the driver to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. It is understood he received serious leg and arm fractures.

Six ambulances were called to the accident, with four of the injured taken to ARI with back and other injuries and suffering from trauma, and the other eight passengers to the Jubilee Hospital at Huntly. None was believed to have life-threatening injuries.

Sergeant Neil Binning, who is based at Huntly, said off-duty medical staff had been among the first to go to the aid of the casualties and helped to treat them by the roadside.

He said: “The alarm was raised by a nurse who was driving on the road, and she summoned assistance and went to help when she saw what had happened.

“Several other medics, including a doctor and a midwife, also came on the accident scene and helped comfort and care for the injured,” he said.

As firefighters from Huntly and Insch worked to free those still trapped, the rescue helicopter landed in a nearby field until the injured driver was taken to the aircraft.

The route was closed for several hours following the crash. Police set up diversion signs at the Huntly roundabout, the A97 junction with the main A96 Aberdeen-Inverness road, and just outside Rhynie.

Sandy McBain, of Main Street, Rhynie, works at a farm close to where the accident happened.

He said motorists often misjudged their speed as they approached the bend.

“It’s a sharp corner, there have been a few accidents here,” he said.

Last night shocked staff at the care home in Low Street, Banff, were preparing to welcome home and comfort the elderly residents who had been released from hospital.